In addition to winning the 2008 North American Solar Challenge, our
team won a few other awards. With hundreds of team members, family
members, and sponsors in attendance at the awards ceremony this past
Wednesday, a wonderful meal and ceremony were put on at the Calgary Zoo by
SolarWorld, The University of Calgary, and NASC.

Many awards were given including observer awards and 15 other
important awards that range from best mechanical system to the spirit
of the event award.

The observers award each team with one “paper-plate” humor style
award. This year our team was awarded a “Divining Rod” for our
persistence in finding water at almost each charging location. Our
divining rod is made up of two sticks taped to a third that will point
the user in the direction of a body of water. Hopefully this will be
useful in Australia this upcoming October! By finding any natural
pond, puddle, lake, we were able to dramatically increase the amount
of energy we were able to capture. This helped us to fill our battery pack
multiple times throughout the race.

As for the main awards from NASC, we were given two of the 15 awards.
In addition to winning the 2008 North American Solar Challenge, our
team was awarded the teamwork award. The officials presented this
award to us because of the incredible sense of team and responsibility
that each team member showed throughout the entire event. Dan Eberle,
Race Organizer, explained that he saw team members who knew what they
were doing at all times and were respectful and attentive to what
needed to be done. In addition, the general team attitude was viewed
as being healthy and relaxed while paying special attention to every
detail. This award means quite a bit to the team. Team work has
always been an issue that this team has dealt with and has been
something we have worked hard to achieve over the past year. By
running hundreds of drills and spending many days of testing on the
open road, our team was able to embody the meaning of this award.

Winning the North American Solar Challenge twice in a row is something
this team has been unable to achieve since 1990 and 1993. This,
coupled with the teamwork award, shows the renewed emphasis of members
spanning multiple projects. Congrats to all Michigan Solar Car
members, alumni, sponsors, family, and friends.

As the team travels back to Ann Arbor there are news articles sprouting up everywhere about the race and Michigan’s victory. If you find a news article please post it as a comment to this post for everyone to see and also so the team can have an accurate record of all media coverage. Please keep comments on this post to media only.

Thanks!

According to the Team, they have just passed inspection and crossed the finish line. Congratulations to everyone!

More details to follow.

One last post before we finish. We are currently in Calgary driving downtown with traffic. 5 miles out!

Go Fast, Go Smooth, Go BLUE!

We are down to 30 km left of the 2008 North American Solar Challenge. We have already seen many groups of people on the side of the road cheering us on and taking pictures. With reports from Scout and Weather we expect lots more lining the streets and highway ramps as we near the city. And now just over 30 or so minutes to go.

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As I ride along in Chase for the last stretch of the rayce, I would like to take a few minutes to thank all of our team sponsors, especially those who help my Division: Strategy.

Computers
Computational power is one of the greatest tools of Michigan Strategists. During the race Strategists run simulations to help determine the optimal speed to run Continuum. A special thanks to Acer America, Computer Builder’s Warehouse, Red Barn Computers, Intel, and CAEN for providing the team with laptops, desktop computers and servers for the race.

GPS
One of the keys to Michigan’s success race strategy is accurate GPS and route information. Topcon provided the team with GPS equipment, which in conjunction with a correction service from OmniStar was used to gather sub-meter accurate data for the entire race route. This helped us plan ahead and save extra energy in the battery for those nasty hills.

Software Development
For this race, Michigan Strategists used mainly MATLAB and Visual Studio for software development. A special thanks to The MathWorks and Microsoft for providing licenses for their respective software suites.

Computer Peripherals
Even with the fanciest computer and superb software tools, it is difficult to run a race without all of the small computer peripherals and accessories. Cables Unlimited, Alternative Wireless, Targus and Sewell Direct helped provide the team with top of the line products including Serial-USB adapters, cellular antennas, laptop power cords, portable harddrive enclosures and other such things.

Testing
Another key to Michigan’s successful strategy is detail testing of Continuum. Testing was done on both a system and vehicle level. A special thanks to Carlisle Belts for providing timing pulleys and belts and Visteon for donating a dynamometer to the team; both were used to characterize Continuum’s new CSIRO motor last summer. Performance of Continuum was characterized on Dana‘s and Chrysler‘s test tracks and at Michigan International Speedway. Continuum has also recently visited Jacobs‘ and Chrysler’s wind tunnels. This testing was essential for Michigan Strategists to understand the performance of Continuum; it enabled us to drive fast without worrying (too much) about draining the battery back.

Wireless Communication
Continuum utilizes Motorola’s MESH technology to wirelessly transfer data from Continuum to Lead and Chase. Michigan Strategists monitor telemetry data from Continuum throughout the race and compare its performance to their predictive models. MESH worked flawlessly for the team this NASC.

Unfortunately due to my poor internet connection crossing the Canadian prairie, I am unable to post pictures right now.

-Alex
Head Strategist

With quite a bit of battery saved so we can go at whatever speed we would like, we have chosen a safe cruising speed given the very light traffic and light winds. We do not know where the other teams are and we can’t see them (as of now) behind us. It has been fun driving along and finding family, friends, and media passing and then seeing them on the side of the road with cameras taking pictures. As soon as I can get some I will post a few online.

We are on the road about 30 minutes out of Medicine Hat. With every team leaving at 1 minute intervals, the 180 mile stretch will be fun and hopefully everyone will come in close to one another. We have been told to expect thousands of people in Calgary (eveb more than in 2005 when 30,000 people showed up for the finish).

Thanks again to everyone following the race and for those that posted. It really is great to see such an active blog and has been great fun. Now time to keep up speeds, travel safely, and arrive in Calgary!

Here are the current official standings from NASC:

Team             Time
Michigan     47:22:53
Principia    56:18:51
FH Bochum    58:43:32
Waterloo     59:05:33
Minnesota    60:30:16
Calgary      70:13:58
Missouri S&T 72:58:23
Iowa State   84:53:20
Red River    85:38:55
Kentucky     91:42:36
Arizona      94:54:11
Queens       101:18:35
Northwestern 104:30:51
Durham       121:27:28
Oregon State 121:42:48

And some quick calculations. Leader is the time behind the leader. Gap is the time behind the next place. These are my numbers, so please let me know if you find any errors.

Team             Time      Leader       Gap
Michigan     47:22:53    ——–   ——-
Principia    56:18:51     8:55:58   8:55:58
FH Bochum    58:43:32    11:20:39   2:24:41
Waterloo     59:05:33    11:42:40   0:22:01
Minnesota    60:30:16    13:07:23   1:24:43
Calgary      70:13:58    22:51:05   9:43:42
Missouri S&T 72:58:23    25:35:30   2:44:25
Iowa State   84:53:20    37:30:27  11:54:57
Red River    85:38:55    38:16:02   0:45:35
Kentucky     91:42:36    44:19:43   6:03:41
Arizona      94:54:11    47:31:18   3:11:35
Queens       101:18:35   53:55:42   6:24:24
Northwestern 104:30:51   57:07:58   3:12:16
Durham       121:27:28   74:04:35  16:56:37
Oregon State 121:42:48   74:19:55   0:15:20

We arrived in Medicine Hat at 13:08:52 this afternoon!  I apologize for the problems with the tracking website – I believe we lost internet access which the updates are dependent upon.  Anyhow with nothing planned except general maintenance on Continuum and then an evening charge starting at 6pm, the team hopes to complete work and then relax and get some sleep.  We haven’t seen any other teams yet and we heard from the Germans that they would be in around 5pm.  Only one day of racing left!